Why is Christian music of such low quality?

Question

Don't even debate it Christians, your music just does not measure up.

I have my own opinions why-- what are yours?

I saw Mercy Me in concert. It was very, very dull....

And yes, to clarify, I mean modern Christian music. And by "low quality" I mean... low quality.

Answer 1

Traditional Christian music included some of the best. Aretha Franklin style Gospel, Blind Boys of Alabama Jump for Jesus stuff, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, and of course The King himself. Folk, Classical, Rock & Roll, Pop. All genres have examples.
Untill you get to the modern fundamentalist sect.
It's almost all poor quality stuff. The claims that these guys don't make the charts because of religious discrimination is not true. Plenty of religous music has made Billbourd. Go look.
Americans will listen to Religious music. But it's got to be good musiclly.
Some of the failure for this sect to produce good stuff has to be willingness to listen to no talent stuff if it has the right Rel content. But some talented musicians must get into it. They too end up turnig out a bad product. This probably is related to the mental limitations one must impose on oneself to join this sect. No questioning, no imagination, no improvising. In short, the the talented musicians give up everything that made them talented in the 1st place.
I have no empirical evidence for this but it would be interesting to look into.

Answer 2

Horrible. Absolutely Horrible.
J.S. Bach ... what a hack.
John Michael Talbot. Really low.
U2 ... Should stay in Europe.
Phil Keaggy ... who taught him to play guitar, right?

Then there are such great secular musicians, right?
Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears.

There are good and bad in both. Still, some of the best and most influential music in the world was written by Christians, for Christians.

Popular secular music has one goal: to make money. It does not encourage experimentation or thinking outside the box. Songs must fit in particular formats that will work in sets to be played on the air. They must be short enough to remember quickly. Musicians need to maintain particular styles to continue to appeal to specific audiences. It is a recipe for making money, nothing more.

Independent musicians have much greater freedom, but make less money.

Christian music (as a very wide genre) is designed to appeal to a much smaller audience. The lyrics do not express the same degree of freedom as does secular music. The base of musicians from which to gather talent is much smaller as well. That doesn't mean that all Christian music is of lower quality. There are simply more secular musicians, so there is a larger base to select music from there. With Christian music, if you wish to play as many different songs as a secular station, you will be selecting from a wider range of music. Some will necessarily be better.

I think the percentage of great Christian musicians is about the same as great secular musicians.

Answer 3

Because Christians have no soul.

Oh, wait - that's animals. Sorry. I get my theology mixed up.

I think it's just because real creativity doesn't work well within the bounds of orthodoxy. Which is basically what I was saying in the first place...lol. All "Christian" "music" is all about praising Jesus, etc. It's boring and contrived.

BTW, yeah, a lot of classical music is religious in theme - although a lot of it is also pagan and mythological - but that's just because ALL art worked within those formal confines back then. Artists practically had no choice; but the fact that they still move us today is a testament to the genius of the artists, not the religion. And I'm sorry, but I hope you're not seriously comparing Bach to Casting Crowns or whoever.

Answer 4

I never listen to Xian music so can't really comment, the stuff I have heard accidently is pretty sappy and lame...especially lyrically, but that is as ever was in religious music. Only a few themes to work with

As an old rocker who came of age in the early 70's I think a lot of music these days sucks...rap, hiphop etc is just plain awful. Sorry, that's not just an "old fogie" thing., I listen to a lot of new bands ....but rap sucks the big one.

Answer 5

I'd love to know the real reason for that. I'm a christian but CCM irritates me to the bone, its the most "musically un-talented" of all music, and lyrically, its so monotonous and fluffy it would throw a diabetic into sugar shock. I think most of these singers want to make it in the world music scene but they don't have near the talent so they go to the one genre where they can make some money, CCM. As for southern gospel its so hokey who can listen to it. I wish i knew the answer.

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Answer 6

Actually I'd qualify that statement to say that "your music *from the last hundred years* does not measure up". Some of the stuff before that is actually quite nice, despite the warped message.

"The only good thing ever to come out of religion was the music."
- George Carlin

Why? (With regard to Christian music of recent decades.) Well, they can't come up with any scientific hypotheses that are worth a damn; they can't seem to grasp the concept of logic or reason...how could we possibly expect them to come up with good music?

Answer 7

I'm assuming that you mean the Christian music of today. I agree it is quite mediocre. It all sounds the same.

How did they drift so far off course? Where are the Bachs, Mozarts and Beethovens of modern times? Isn't there anyone around who could, and pull in the mass crowds of Handel's "Messiah?"

Answer 8

Are you asking about musical quality or just not to your taste? Those are two different things. Maybe you ned to define which type of Christian music you are referring to. I would like to hear your views on that.

Answer 9

Everyone has their own opinion as to what is low quality.
I bet if I heard your choice I would probably think your choice would be low quality. However, since I do not down anybody else's choice of music, I don't think your question is worth wasting any more time on.

Answer 10

Have you even heard of Bach?

Frankly, I could listen to Byrd, Tallis, Händel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven (both not completely sacred, I agree), Mendelssohn, BERNSTEIN et al every day over pop music.